cubes: November 2006

Material Exchange, a collective comprised of Chicago-based artists Sara Black, Charles McGhee-Hassrick, and John Preus, aims to minimize and reuse waste through the redesign and rearticulation of objects. For three months prior to this exhibition, they collected discarded art-related materials from the MCA Store, warehouse, and offices to create a site and material specific installation to examine the value and position of waste within culture.

Inspired by the MCA’s geometric building grid, which is based on the module of a 2 foot cube, Material Exchange has fabricated twenty four 2 x 2 x 2 foot recycled cubes. In a circulating loop, these cubes – constructed from objects originally created or used by the museum which were later devalued and discarded – have been repositioned as artworks within this gallery. The cube’s iconic form, often seen as a metaphor for a museum or a gallery, not only serves to unify the disparate materials collected but also functions as a utilitarian structure for the object’s life after if leaves the MCA.

Drawing attention to the natural world where nothing is wasted, Material Exchange will remove one cube each day from the gallery for its later use as a container for plants. This relocation is documented by video and replaced with information of an image of its location in the gallery which lists its new location. In creating an object that cycles within and without the MCA, from garbage to art and from art to nature, Material Exchange not only draws attention to the similarities and differences between the natural world and the art world, which tries to minimize nature’s effects – bacteria, mildew, oxidation – but actively demonstrates how objects can be repositioned and move between the economies of waste, art making, nature, and information.

Material Exchange wishes to thanks their collaborators:
Alta Buden
Brendan Padraig
David Wolf
Eric Newman
Julia Klein
Michael Dinges
Rod Northcutt
Theaster Gates
Trudy Watt